Betting racket busted in Noida, doctor and industrialists among 15 arrested
A police team from Noida’s Sector 39 station searched a flat in Amrapali Sapphire in Sector 45 around 1pm on Wednesday when a betting game was on.
A betting racket was busted on Wednesday and 15 people, including a builder, a doctor, bank managers and share brokers, were arrested from a rented apartment in Noida Sector 45.
A police team from the Sector 39 station searched a flat in Amrapali Sapphire in Sector 45 around 1pm on Wednesday when a betting game was on. The accused persons were gambling with cash and also using internet banking and online wallets to place bets.
“We received a tipoff from an informant that a betting was on in one of the flats of Amrapali Sapphire. We raided the flat and found that as many as 15 people were involved in betting over card games and coupons. The game was exclusive to ‘elite’ players and bets were in the range of ₹15-20 lakh on an everyday basis. The persons used cash, internet banking and online wallets to put in stakes. By the time we stopped the game, the accused had already put ₹14 lakh into the game,” Anil Kumar Shai, station house officer, Sector 39, said.
According to police, the prime accused is one Punit Goswami, of Indirapuram in Ghaziabad. It was he who had rented the flat and was hosting betting games by charging players ₹200 per hour.
“Goswami had taken the flat on a monthly rent of ₹26,000. His staff also used to entertain guests by serving them liquor, mocktails and snacks. Before every game, he used to claim a share of the betting amount as the ‘organiser’s fee’,” Shai said.
The arrested were identified as Shikhar, of Indirapuram and the son of a retired deputy superintendent of police; Amit Kumar, a doctor of Jaypee Hospital in Greater Noida; Prakhar Chauhan, of Mayur Vihar, who owns a leather factory in Kanpur; Dinesh Chand, of Greater Kailash in Delhi, who is a manager with a firm; Vikas Kumar, of Faridabad, who is a builder; Amit of Rewari, Haryana; Abhinav Jain of Greater Kailash; Madhur of Noida Sector 39; Pankaj of Sihani Gate, Ghaziabad; Krishna of Rewari; Aasif Chaudhary of Malviya Nagar, Delhi; Parikshan Das of Amrapali Sapphire; Basant of Khoda,ghaziabad; and Bhola of Amrapali Sapphire.
Police have also recovered cash worth ₹2.11 lakh, four stacks of playing cards, 800 tokens, 18 mobile phones and five cars, including a BMW.
“All the accused have been booked under sections 3 and 4 of the Gambling Act,” Shai said.